Saturday, June 29, 2013

May left the ranking like it was last month, with the exception of the bottom place, where Renault recovered the tenth place for the Twizy.Despite this entry in the Top 10, the french EV has two models following its small tail, with the #11 Chery QQ3 EV and the #12 Ford Fusion Energi less than 100 units behind it, so a lot can happen in June...Pure electrics continue on the rebound, with BEV share increasing another point to 62% of the market.

Behind the seven major players, figures become a bit sketchy as one doesn't know for sure how the chinese brands are behaving, but taking in account confirmed numbers, BYD switches positions with Chery, with the e6 maker now #8, leaving its compatriot in #9 and Smart rounding up the table in #10.

Friday, June 28, 2013

This month the french hatchback started to arrive in significant numbers to countries other than France and that resulted in three #1's for Renault, in May the Zoe topped the EV charts for the first time in Spain, Italy and Austria, adding that to the top spot it already had in France and brilliants #2 in Germany and #3 (And best selling BEV) in the Netherlands, Renault's supermini recovered the top spot (both monthly and YTD) in Europe, relegating the Nissan Leaf to second place. In June the UK-made Leaf's will start being delivered, so it's to be expected that the japanese hatch bounces back then.

Trends in the G7 (Great Seven)

The US market represented 71% of all plug-in sales in May, some 20% above the usual share, because the japanese market sank this month, with just 924 units, which represented just 21% of sales in February, the causes for this terrible performance was not only Mitsubishi's battery problems, but also the Nissan Leaf selling below expectations (Just 708 units).

Despite this, the japanese EV share is still above last year's (0,84% vs 0,77%), just like in six of the seven major markets, with a welcome recovery of the dutch market, now slightly above '12 share (1,104% vs 1,103%). Even Germany, the only country with an lower EV share in '13, is slowly recovering and it's now standing at 0,14%.

Italy (165 units), Austria (53 units) and Hong Kong (55 units) registered the best selling months of the year, with the asian market scoring also an all-time record, thanks to a BYD Taxi fleet deal, and already breaking the sales record of 2012 (89 units), ending May with a total of 99 EV's sold in 2013.

Speaking of record breaking, the other country to beat this year the sales record is tiny Iceland, that already sold 21 plug-in cars this year, beating last year's record of 18 units, with the Toyota Prius Plug-In also beating the 2012 record for best selling model (Mitsu I-Miev - 7 units) by 2 units, establishing for now the new record in 9 units sold. Small numbers, so plenty of space for improvement here.

Chevrolet Spark EV painted in black: Will the GM model be more than a compliance car?

Questions for June

Will the Chevrolet Spark EV beat all compliance cars in its sales debut?

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Taking profit of Mitsubishi's battery problems, the Nissan Leaf recovered the top spot in Japan, thanks to 708 units sold in May, accounting for the majority of plug-in sales this month, that settled for a meager 924 units, the worst result since 2011 for the japanese EV market.

By brands, Mitsubishi is number one with 57%, thanks to a diversified range, followed at distance by Nissan with 39%.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

We welcome a new ranking, Hong Kong, comparing with the rest of China, this autonomous territory has a very different automotive landscape, with foreign brands taking the bulk of sales.

As such, the small local EV market also reflects that, with the Renault-Nissan Alliance dominating sales, with the exception of May, where a 45 taxi fleet deal including BYD put its e6 model on the top spot.

As a result, the Renault Fluence ZE dropped to second place with 35 units, the Leaf is now third with 18 sales and finally in fourth place, there's the I-Miev with just one unit sold.

Finally, the EV share now stands at a respectable 0,52%, more than doubling last year share of 0,21%, when only the Leaf was sold here.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Finally a good month for the Italian EV market, with 165 units sold it's the best month this year and one of the best performances ever, which lead their share to improve to a still shy 0,07%, almost half of what was in the end of last year (0,13%).

The Renault Zoe jumped to #1 in May and #2 YTD, making this one of the countries where the french supermini got a warmest welcome.

In third comes the Smart Fortwo ED, climbing five positions on the '12 performance, relegating the Nissan Leaf to the fourth position.

Friday, June 21, 2013

With 344 units sold in May, the German EV market went down 34% regarding April, leaving the german EV share at 0,14%, below the 0,19% mark registered in the end of 2012.

In the models ranking we've got the Renault Twizy collecting its second monthly #1 with 133 units sold, enabling it to rise to second place YTD, below the Smart Fortwo ED, now a full scale production model.

The Renault Zoe climbs to #5 YTD, thanks to a brilliant second place in May and the next months should see it climb even further, maybe hitting #3 YTD before the summer ends. This is an important market for the french BEV, after its home market, this should be the most important country numbers-wise, with sales predicted to hit 150-250 units a month.

Because this year every month has several changes in the ranking, strange things happen in it, like this month, the Opel Ampera, despite delivering one of the best performances in the last few months (#3 with 37 units), dropped one position YTD to #6.

In the brands ranking, Renault recovered the #1 spot, with 32% share, relegating Smart to #2, with 28%.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

With 1.024 units sold in May, the french EV market went back to last year levels, with the EV share decreasing to 0,83% as result of it.

The reason for this decrease in sales was the 45% dip that the Renault Zoe suffered, ending May with just 483 units sold. The question for the next months is if this poor performance by the french hatch is temporary or this might be the first sign of a sales failure.

The rest of the ranking remains stable, with the Renault Twizy climbing to #4 in May and putting pressure on Bolloré on the YTD ranking.

The Volvo V60 Plug-In is one of the models with great sales potential in Norway

Leaf Rules Edition

With 391 cars sold, a 39% decrease over last month, the EV market suffered from an average month by the Nissan Leaf with 330 sales and #8 in the general ranking. It's curious to realize that an eighth place in the general ranking for the Leaf now can be classified as "average".

The rest of the ranking has much smaller numbers, the Mitsubishi I-Miev is #2, with 17 units and 181 YTD, followed by the Toyota Prius Plug-In, number one among Plug-In Hybrids, segment that will grow in the next months, now that they benefit from the same fiscal incentives as pure electric cars, for now they represent just 9% of the market.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

With 28 units sold in May and 0,17% share, the danish EV market is far from the performances it had a few months ago.

The Nissan Leaf just needed 9 sales to secure the #1 spot and improve even further the YTD leadership, but the big news was the landing of the Renault Zoe, which sold 6 units, enough to secure a brilliant #2 spot this month and in third another newcomer made its position, with the Renault Twizy making its first footsteps in Denmark.

But not everything went smoothly for Renault, because the Fluence ZE, its usual best seller, dived to fifth place in May, suffering from the Better Place collapse. Although the Fluence is still #2 YTD, the Zoe / Twizy duo came in the right time to balance a possible disappearance from the top spots of the french sedan.

Despite a below average sales month (310 units), and because the global dutch market is falling even more (-37%!), this month the EV share recovered to the 2012 levels, at 1,10%.

A strong Prius Plug-In dethroned the Opel Ampera from number one both on the monthly and YTD rankings, and the Renault Zoe jumped to third in May, benefiting from its first real month of sales (48 units).

On the other hand, the Nissan Leaf had a terrible sales month, selling just 10 units. Is it a hiccup or is the Zoe stealing sales? To be seen in the next episodes.

Another good sales month for plug-ins in the US, with 7.583 units sold, the second best performance this year, rising the EV share to 0,514%.

The big news is the recovery of the Nr.1 spot by the Nissan Leaf, scoring a second best sales month at 2.138 sales and relegating the Model S to #2, down to 1.800 sales, already preparing itself for the first sales in Europe.

From this summer on, the Model S sales will be divided by several countries and with the production constraints in Tesla's production line, US sales should be limited from now on to some 1.000 units per month, so both the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt could surpass it during this year, but even if it does end in third, it's still a commendable position considering it costs twice as much as the direct competition.

Outside the podium, there's another record month for the Fusion Energi (416 units), just 34 units behind its brethren Ford C-Max and closing in at #4 position held by the Prius Plug-In, and there's also the arrival of the 3rd Gen Smart Fortwo ED, now available to the general public and looking to collect a Top 10 spot in the coming months.